Full Surface Ion Beam Etching on 200 mm Wafers
The scia Mill 200 is designed for structuring of complex multilayers of various materials. For an exact process control different end point detection systems can be equipped. With its fully reactive gas compatibility the system enables reactive etching processes with enhanced selectivity and rate. The flexible design of the scia Mill 200 allows to adapt it as single substrate version as well as in high volume production cluster layout with up to three process chambers and two cassette load locks.
Features & Benefits
- Etching angle adjustment with tiltable and rotatable substrate holder
- Excellent uniformity without shaper
- Enhanced selectivity and rate with reactive gases
- Process control with exact SIMS based or optical end point detection
- Processing of wafers with photoresist masks due to good wafer cooling
- Fully automatic cassette handling in variable cluster layouts including SECS/GEM communication
Applications
- Structuring of magnetic memory (MRAM) and sensors (IR, GMR, TMR)
- Milling of metals in MEMS production (Au, Ru, Ta, …)
- Milling of multilayers from diversified metal and dielectric materials
- RIBE or CAIBE of compound semiconductors (GaAs, GaN, InP, …)
- Production of 3-dimensional optoelectronic microstructures
- Ion beam smoothing for reduction of microroughness
- Pattern transfer for optical gratings
Principle
- Circular ion beam source etches full substrate area under a defined angle with inert or reactive gases
Technologies
Ion Beam Etching (IBE) / Ion Beam Milling (IBM)
uses a collimated beam of inert gas ions for structuring or material removal.
Reactive Ion Beam Etching (RIBE)
introduces reactive gas into the ion beam source for reactive etching of the surface.
Chemically Assisted Ion Beam Etching (CAIBE)
uses reactive gas independent of the ion beam for reactive etching of the surface.
Technical Data
Substrate size (up to) | 200 mm dia. |
Substrate holder | Water cooled, helium backside cooling contact, substrate rotation 5 to 20 rpm, tiltable in-situ from 0° to 175° in 0.1° steps |
Ion beam source | 350 mm circular RF source (RF350-e) |
Neutralizer | RF plasma bridge neutralizer (N-RF) |
Typical removal rates | Cu: 44 nm/min, Pt: 35 nm/min, W:17 nm/min, SiO2:20 nm/min |
Uniformity variation | ≤ 1 % (σ/mean) |
Throughput | 12 Wafer/h (100 nm SiO2 on 200 mm wafer) |
Base pressure | < 5 x 10-7 mbar |
System dimension (W x D x H) | 3.20 m x 2.50 m x 2.50 m, for 3 chambers and cassette handling (without electrical racks and pumps) |
Configurations | Single chamber, optional single substrate load lock or cassette handling, Cluster system with up to 3 process chambers and cassette handling, optional OES or SIMS based end point detection |
Software interfaces | SECS II / GEM, OPC |
Other Ion Beam Etching Systems
scia Mill 150
for full surface etching of
substrates up to 150 mm
scia Trim 200
for precise surface correction
of wafers up to 200 mm
